The present invention relates to a method for adjusting a working unit of a harvesting machine, in particular a self-propelled harvesting machine. The present invention also relates to a harvesting machine, with which at least one of the working units is adjustable according to a method of this type.
Agricultural harvesting machines, in particular self-propelled harvesting machines such as combine harvesters, forage harvesters, etc., include several adjustable working units for processing various types of crops. With modern harvesting machines, the individual units are typically equipped with adjusting devices—which are remotely controllable from the driver's cab—with which the working units or various control parameters of the working units can be set. Typical working units of a combine harvester are, e.g., the threshing mechanism, which usually includes a concave and one or more cylinders, and a cleaning unit located downstream of the threshing mechanism, the cleaning unit typically including a blower and several sieves. Different types of crops and harvesting conditions, such as moisture, crop height, ground conditions, etc., require that the individual units and/or their adjustable control parameters be adjusted as exactly as possible to the specific, on-going harvesting process, in order to obtain an optimum overall operating result.
Despite the many aids offered by the manufacturers of harvesting machines to help operators perform adjustments—such as comprehensive operator training, printed lists of setting values predetermined for various harvesting situations that the operator can refer to, and electronic tools such as electronic fieldwork information systems preprogrammed with optimized combinations of setting values for highly diverse harvesting situations for the operator to choose from—it is still relatively difficult for operators to adjust the machine such that it functions in an optimum manner according to the desired requirements. This is the case, in particular, for inexperienced and/or untrained operators, particularly at the beginning of a harvesting season. In many cases, therefore, the harvesting machine and/or its working units are not adapted to the current harvesting process in an optimum manner. As a result, the available harvesting capacity of the machine is under-utilized, poor operating results are obtained, or, in some cases, unnecessary crop losses result.
Publication U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,442 therefore describes a method for automatically adjusting the working units of a harvesting machine. Among other things, a machine-observing unit with an image sensor is used that takes pictures of the crop material. These pictures are subsequently evaluated, e.g., to detect damaged-grain portions, contaminants, etc. in the threshed-out and cleaned crop-material flow, and to generate corresponding control signals to suitably adjust the working units. The entire image evaluation and control method is relatively complex, however.